Summer Term 2025
Welcome to Summer Term 2025, we hope you are rested and ready for the term ahead, time to roll up our sleeves and get back to making some beautiful music.
Summer Concert Update, please can we ask you to save the date Sunday 15th June. We will be limited in numbers as the capacity is tight, so we will be in contact soon.
Please note that, term starts Today Tuesday 22nd April 2025 and will continue until Monday 21st July 2025, (with half term being Sunday 25th May - Sunday 1st June).
Thank you to those of you who have settled your bill. As a small business cash flow is often hard to manage especially in the current financial climate. That said, if you haven’t settled your bill and you are in financial difficulties please let us know. If we haven’t heard from you by the Sunday 27th April we will give your space to someone in our waiting list.
As ever, a copy of our make up policy is included on the My Music Staff portal (online resources), there is a page on our website (https://melodymakers.mymusicstaff.com/Make-up-Lesson-Policy) which is also included in the footnote of every invoice.
Love and Music
Claire, Emily, Steve and Tiago
Spring Term 2025
Happy New Year and Welcome to 2025, we hope you have had a lovely restful break and are ready to start the term ahead with a Gusto
Overall we have a quiet term this time, we will all be focusing on our normal teaching, that's the bit that we love the most!
Please note that, term starts Monday 6th January 2025 and will continue until 5th April 2025, (with half term being Sunday 16th February - Sunday 23rd February).
Thank you to those of you who have settled your bill. As a small business cash flow is often hard to manage especially in the current financial climate. That said, if you haven’t settled your bill and you are in financial difficulties please let us know. If we haven’t heard from you by the 11th January we will give your space to someone in our waiting list.
Love and Music
Claire, Steve, Emily and Tiago
Autumn term 2024 Newsletter
Welcome to our Autumn Term Newsletter, with Christmas fast approaching we are now looking ahead to the upcoming Spring term. First we would like to say that our annual Christmas video competition is progressing well, it is so nice to see so much enthusiasm from the students this year and we can't wait to see the videos you all produce. Here is a page with all the details, https://melodymakers.mymusicstaff.com/Virtual-Christmas-Concert-Competition-2024
We have several students taking exams this term and we would like to wish everyone the best of luck. We have also had several students taking their 11 plus, Sutton and Wandsworth tests this term. If your child is going for music aptitude or a music scholarship please let us know as soon as possible as we can help provide support in.
Our other teachers have also been a busy bunch this term.
Tiago recently performed for Avatar Live 'film in concert', bringing James Cameron's epic movie Avatar to life combining live orchestral music with the breath-taking visuals of the film.
Emily is also very busy outside of teaching, serving as Assistant musical Director on production of Aladdin (MP3 productions, St John’s Church, High Path, SW19, 31st Jan to 2nd Feb 2025), we have been involved with this production company for many years. Their events are always really good fun and a brilliant feel good factor for the cold winter months, you will probably see Steve and Claire there! Tickets go on sale 7th December, mp3merton.wixsite.com
Steve is also busy with his band over the next few months if you fancy an evening of classic rock check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DirtyRiffsBand for upcoming events.
Now for a few small admin details. This term we are making a small change to the invoicing system. Previously you would receive your invoice attached to the latest copy of our termly newsletter. This term the invoice and the newsletter will be sent separately. This will allow us to batch send the invoices and instead of doing over 100 separate emails. So please be aware that your invoice for next term will be a separate email.
We would like to take this chance to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love and Music
Claire, Steve, Emily, and Tiago
Make up days for the Christmas holidays are as follows:
Emily,
Thursday 2nd January Am
Tiago,
Friday 4th January all day.
Claire,
Thursday 2nd January Am
Friday 3rd January Am
Steve,
Friday 3rd January all day
Autumn Term 2024
Welcome to Autumn Term 2024, we hope you are rested and ready for the year ahead, time to roll up our sleeves and get back into the swing of things, ready to make some beautiful music.
We are hoping to run our Virtual Christmas virtual concert and Summer Concert, but we will send more details when the time comes, watch this space…. :-)
Please note that, term starts on Monday 2nd September and will continue until 22ndt December 2024, (with half term being Sunday 27th October - Sunday 3rd November).
Thank you to those of you who have settled your bill. As a small business cash flow is often hard to manage especially in the current financial climate. That said, if you haven’t settled your bill and you are in financial difficulties please let us know. If we haven’t heard from you by the 10th September we will give your space to someone in our waiting list.
Thank you to those who have told us about their contact preferences, if you haven't filled in this form could you please fill this in, https://forms.gle/DakC2A3ECCyEbFcE8
We are looking forward to seeing you all again soon,
Love and Music
Claire, Steve, and all of the Melody Makers team, (Emily and Tiago)
Summer Concert 2024
Hi Everyone
We are planning our first live event since lockdown! Our annual summer concert is back!!
It will be taking place at Christ Church (Christchurch Road SW19 2NY) on, Sunday 7th July 18.00-20.00 As you may be aware, performing or public speaking is a very important life-skill. The way we learn that skill is by having many performance opportunities, which are positive and kind so that the performer can get used to the level of exposure taking creative risks with confidence.
We want to welcome everyone (Grannies, Grandads, Aunts, Uncles, even the crazy ones!) I would love the children to look out from the stage to a sea of smiling faces. We want our event to celebrate our lovely community as we nurture our upcoming talent.
The event will be free for performers to take part however the tickets for the audience will be £10/person (children under 5 will be free),
The event is not compulsory, however as we like to make ourselves as inclusive as possible we would love you to join us.
Summer Term 2024 Update
Hi Everyone
Welcome to Summer Term 2024, we hope you are rested and ready for the term ahead, time to roll up our sleeves and get back to making some beautiful music.
Summer Concert Update, please can we ask you to save the date Sunday 7th July. We will be limited in numbers as the capacity is tight, so we will be in contact soon.
Please note that, term starts Today Monday 15th April 2024 and will continue until Sunday 21st July, (with half term being Sunday 26th May - Sunday 2nd June).
Thank you to those of you who have settled your bill. As a small business cash flow is often hard to manage especially in the current financial climate. That said, if you haven’t settled your bill and you are in financial difficulties please let us know. If we haven’t heard from you by the Sunday 21st April we will give your space to someone in our waiting list.
As ever, a copy of our make up policy is included on the My Music Staff portal (online resources), there is a page on our website (https://melodymakers. mymusicstaff.com/Make-up- Lesson-Policy) which is also included in the footnote of every invoice.
Love and Music
Claire, Emily, Steve and Tiago
Autumn Term, End of Term Update
This is just a quick reminder to everyone just to say that today, (Thursday 21st December), is our last day of term time teaching before the Christmas break. There are a few makeup slots remaining. I have placed the dates at the foot of this email.
We hope you all have a lovely break and we would like to congratulate all of our students for a very successful term.
Christmas Virtual Concert Competition
I’m sure you will all agree that the Christmas Virtual Concert Competition was lots of fun and a great way for the children to receive nice feedback on their performances. Thank you to everyone who got involved and we will give the 5 top children (Isabella, Marcus, Azlaan, Luisa and Amaan) their prizes in the first lesson after the break.
Congratulations to everyone who got involved. We are proud of all of you.
Please note that the payment for next term is now due, thank you to those who have already paid. If you're in financial difficulties or haven't received the email please let me know ASAP.
If you are planning not to return please also let me know, that way we can open your slot to someone on our waiting list.
In the meantime, from all of us at Melody Makers, we hope you all have a wonderful rest and come back on the first day of term Monday 8th January full of energy for the first term of the new academic year.
Love and music
Claire, Steve, Emily Gosia and Tiago
We have some make up lessons, on the following days, as always they are on the system:
Claire
Thursday 4th January AM (3 spaces)
Friday 5th January PM (5 spaces)
Steve
Friday 5th January AM (4 spaces)
Friday 5th January PM (4 spaces)
Emily
Tuesday 2nd January AM (3 spaces)
Friday 5th January AM (4 spaces)
Gosia
Friday 5th January AM (3 spaces)
Friday 5th January PM (6 spaces)
Tiago
Wednesday 3rd January AM (4 spaces)
Thursday 4th January AM (6 spaces)
Autumn Term 2023 Newsletter
Hi everybody,
Welcome to our Autumn Term Newsletter, with Christmas fast approaching we are now looking ahead to the upcoming Spring term. First we would like to say that our annual Christmas video competition is progressing well, it is so nice to see so much enthusiasm from the students this year and we can't wait to see the videos you all produce. Here is a page with all the details, https://melodymakers.mymusicstaff.com/Virtual-Christmas-Concert-Competition-2023
We have several students taking exams this term and we would like to wish everyone the best of luck. However it has not just been the students, Gosia has recently started learning her third in taken her Claranet exam this term and has passed with a distinction, ‘well done Gosia’.
Our other teachers have also been a busy bunch this term.
Steve is off to do a RSL (Rockschool) teacher training course on the 1st of December, this is something that will benefit all of our students going forward. Having more exam boards will give our students more choice.
Claire has also been busy and she has completed her training, and we are now happy to announce that we are a Stave House Licensee. Stave house are specialist in music education system aimed for young people and children with SEN, if your interested in more information About - Stave House
Emily is also very busy outside of teaching, serving as Assistant musical Director on production of Mother Goose (MP3 productions, St John’s Church, High Path, SW19, 26th -28th January 2024), we have been involved with this production company for many years. Their events are always really good fun and a brilliant feel good factor for the cold winter months, you will probably see Steve and Claire there! Tickets go on sale 2nd December, tinyurl.com/mp3panto.
Now for a few small admin details. This term we are making a small change to the invoicing system. Previously you would receive your invoice attached to the latest copy of our termly newsletter. This term the invoice and the newsletter will be sent separately. This will allow us to batch send the invoices and instead of doing over 100 separate emails. So please be aware that your invoice for next term will be a separate email.
If you have unused makeup credits now is the time to book them, as we have just opened all the free slots on the system for next term, so there are spaces until 28th March.
We would like to take this chance to wish everybody a Merry Christamas and a Happy New Year.
Love and Music
Claire, Steve, Gosia, Emily, and Tiago
Make up days for the Christmas holidays are as follows:
Emily,
2nd January 2024
5th January 2024
Tiago,
3rd January 2024
4th January 2024
Claire,
4th January 2024
5th January 2024
Gosia,
5th January 2024
Steve,
5th January 2024
Virtual Christmas Concert
As Christmas time is fast approaching we at Melody Makers are turning our attention to our Virtual Christmas Concert. Like last year we have decided to make it a competition, there will be two categories, The Popular Vote and The Judging Panel.
The reason for the competition is to help the children develop their performance and recording skills. As we are all aware to develop as performers we need feedback. Speaking personally as a performer, it somehow becomes more meaningful if those comments come from people that you don’t know. This project is our way of creating that in a fun and safe environment.
The Christmas Concert Competition is really not demanding from you the families. The students will learn a festive song in their lesson and then with your permission, your teacher can film it and upload it to our secure Facebook group, or alternatively you can film it and upload it yourself. The project is free to take part, and everything will happen within your usual lessons so the only commitment we need is in terms of practice and encouragement. However, we will ask you parents to get involved, because your votes will count!
The video will be uploaded to the private Facebook group called Melody Makers Spotlight. It is the same group that we used previously for last year's Virtual Christmas Competition. This group is closed and secure, anyone joining will be asked which child they are supporting and Claire will be vetting all members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/869062580242324/.
Once you have joined the group (and shared it with your close friends and family). Now this is the important bit…. we ask all the adults to comment on a minimum of five different videos, even if they are not students you personally know, it’s about acknowledging the videos you like. Last time we had grandparents from South Africa, aunties from India and cousins from America, it made the group very exciting, especially for the voting stage.
The competition side will come in the form of points, each video will get points. One point for a like, two points for a comment and three points for each comment from the judging panel. That way each child will have lovely essential feedback which will help them develop as a performer.
I feel it’s important to say that this is not a social media exercise, Melody Makers has a very low social media profile (we prefer to work on personal recommendation), the videos will not go viral and only people in the group will be able to see them. The driving force behind all of this competition is that we teachers will be able to show our students their videos and all the positive comments which will give them valuable feedback to help them develop as performers.
Please allow me to stress that we will only film the students if we have your permission. So if you would like to take part please respond to this email as soon as possible.
Now for the exciting bit, the prizes….
1st place will win £40.00 of e-vouchers for Wimbledon Theatre
These will be valid for one year and can be redeemed in any of ATG’s many theatres
Here are the details of the shows at Wimbledon
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place will win
Chocolate and Sweets
Please do let us know if you have any dietary issues, we will do our best to accommodate
Everyone else will get a lollipop for taking part.
We will welcome the videos being really creative, costumes, decorations and scenery, and video effects are all welcome. Parents are welcome to film and upload the videos themselves or just send to me and Claire (email, whatsapp, google share, WE transfer). We are looking forward to some inventive and creative ideas,
Recordings will take place from Monday 4th - Saturday 10th December, here in the studios we will provide some decorations, lights, tinsel etc but we would love you to add your own festive apparel (Silly jumpers, lights hats whatever!) and add to our festive atmosphere it will make your videos wonderful!
To summarise…
Please encourage your child to practise
Please respond to this email giving your permission for your child to participate. We respect your privacy too much to assume it's ok.
Please prepare your costume for 4th - 10th December,
We will send out a scheduled reminder email on the 3rd December.
Share the group with your friends and family- https://www.facebook.com/groups/869062580242324/.
Please note Claire will be vetting all member requests by asking the name of the child they are supporting, that way the environment is only populated by people with a vested interest.
All videos will need to be uploaded 11th December 12.00pm
All winners will be announced by 20.00 on the 17th December 2023
Please make sure you vote (like and or comment) on a minimum of 5 video
Good luck to everyone, it’s going to be a really fun event, Christmas is awesome!
Love and Music
Claire, Steve, Gosia, Emily and Tiago
Summer term 2023 News Letter
Wow this academic year has gone so fast, and already we are looking forward to the Autumn term and a new academic year. The new year is going to bring a few changes at Melody Makers.
Firstly we are going to be saying goodbye to our student and teacher Joanna. We have known Joanna since she was 9 years old as a family friend, a student and finally teacher. We will all be very sad to see her go. However we would all like to wish her all the very best with her new adventure at University where she will be studying acting and Musical Theatre. “Go get em Joanna!”
This brings us to Joanna’s replacements. Some of you may have already met Gosia who started teaching for us this term on a Tuesday evening. Gosia has a BA and MA in music and conducting and a wealth of teaching experience and has settled in nicely as a member of our team. In September we will be joined by Tiago. Tiago has studied at the Guildhall of Music and teaches piano and violin and like Gosia has a wealth of teaching experience. You can see their Bio’s here https://www.melodymakers.uk/our-team
We would like to thank all of the parents and students for being so warm and welcoming to Syd who joined us from the Brit School for a week's work experiance. It was so nice to have Syd around for a week and we think Syd thoroughly enjoyed their time here.
Lastly to end on a high note, we would like to congratulate our teacher Emily, for getting the role of Assistant Musical Supervisor in a production of Annie Get Your Gun, there is more information available here, http://lavendertheatre.com/whats-on
Spring Term 2023 News Letter
It all begins with an idea.
Wow this year seems to be going so fast we are already halfway through and it still feels like we only just started and here we are heading into the summer term.
With the rapid approach of the summer term we are looking into the possibility of staging a live event for all of our students. Since the advent of Covid we have not been able to have our annual summer concert. Now that Covid is largely behind us this is something we are very keen to revive. Performing is such a valuable skill and experience for all budding musicians and we have missed the opportunity to provide this for all of our students. Currently we are searching for a venue and a format to allow everyone who wants to to take part, currently we have 97 students so we need a plan! - Hopefully we can get something together and as soon as we have any more information we will let you all know. Watch this space!
Some of you may have noticed that our ‘My Music Staff’ portal has undergone a bit of a facelift. The new format website is currently optional but please give it a try and let us know what you think. We would be happy to pass on any feedback to ‘My Music Staff’.
We would like to apologise to all of our students who’s exams have been affected by the changes being made at LCME. The exam board has been going through a period of restructuring from the end of last year and this is still currently ongoing. We are hoping that things will settle down again over the next few months. In light of this we apologise to those students who have experienced long waits for their certificates and issues with their exam formats.
Lastly we would like to thank everyone for their kind words and consideration after the passing of DJ earlier this term, He was as much a part of Melody Makers as we are and he is so very very missed by us and many of our students. We would like to thank you all for being so considerate.
Love and Music
Claire, Steve Emily and Joanna